Bittersweet Breakfast
by Wijida
Summary: Cath/Eddie (Nothing pleasant). From the end of 'Who Are You', when Eddie offers breakfast to Cath and Lindsey...and she accepts.


**Disclaimer**: CSI belongs to CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer…although I had a dream, once, that I was involved. Silly, ain't it?

**Note**: Alternate ending to 'Who Are You'. Not _realistic_ alternate ending, for you who are apt to say 'this would never happen'. That's my whole point. It wouldn't. But gosh, I had to write it anyway.

Bittersweet Breakfast

By Manda

            "So I thought I'd take you out to breakfast- say 'thank you'." Her lips curled up in a hint of a smile at that, Eddie's attempt to get close once again. He was right- always had been- in insisting that they were good together. In some ways, they were, with aspects of one another playing off other aspects, working to raise the best aspect of their union together- Lindsey.

            "You're welcome." She reached up to removed her sunglasses, bright Vegas sun harsh in her eyes, causing her to turn sideways and look up at her ex-husband. Somehow, things were different, although she had sworn that before. Yet…it didn't seem like a good idea to shirk it. "And I know Lindsey would love that."

            "You know, her mom is invited, too." Eddie gazed over the playground, spotting his daughter soaring high upon a swing, and returning her enthusiastic wave. "It'd be like old times, Cath. What do you say?"

            _Just like old times… Old times had never included family dinners, frequent visits to the park that Lindsey now adored. Old times would have meant so many different things._

_            "Sure, Ed. I think I'd like that, too."_

~~~~

            It took breakfast to confirm what she already knew. As she looked across her plate of vegetable omelet, Catherine wondered why she had needed one more day to understand.

            Lindsey had loved the idea of going out to eat as a 'family' again, Catherine's heart sinking at the elated look in her daughter's eyes. It fed the hope still there, the hope of the Great Willows Family Restoration that her mother had already emphasized would never happen.

            It couldn't. Bittersweet irony, she mused, as Ed leaned over to blow bubbles into Lindsey's chocolate milk, the youthful laugher a balm to Catherine's torn musings. It was bittersweet and wrong that Eddie's reform into an improved man and seemingly decent attempt at fatherhood would ultimately make her decision for her. Rule against him- and it made no sense.

            When they'd finished, he'd paid the bill and they'd returned to the park, allowing Lindsey one more go at the swings as they took the bench once again.

            "You know I can't, Eddie." His lips had scarcely parted, but she wouldn't allow him the first word, not when the possibility still remained that one compliment from his lips could sway her in the wrong direction. She felt weak with vulnerability, the presence of a man who loved her eating away at her resolve. He'd been the one she'd fallen for at last, who'd drawn her into a warm embrace and helped her kick the habit that could have killed her. But for all the good came all the bad, all the ways that finally told her she needed to be on her own, without Eddie's slacking off to hold her back in the world. And it hurt to think so, and it hurt to push away what security he had caused her to feel…but it was good, and she forced herself to keep thinking that. "Maybe you have changed, Ed…but so have I."

            His eyes lowered, and wryly it occurred to her that this was only the second time she was certain he ever felt remorse. It showed, familiar as the last time she'd seem it; when she'd caught him cheating.

            "I'm sorry about everything, Catherine."

            "Don't be. It won't help anymore." She replied, eyes flickering back toward Lindsey. "There's no way to take back the past, Ed. And in some ways, I'm grateful for that. It made me who I am, and it gave me Lindsey."

            "It gave _us_ Lindsey." He corrected, and reached for her one more time, ensnaring her hand within his. "If I can't fix my mess in one way, Cath, I'll try to be better for her."

            "That's all I need, Eddie." She slipped her sunglasses back on and leaned against the low back of the wooden bench, feeling the slats pressing through the thin fabric of her maroon cotton shirt. The sting of irony was fading, replaced by the calm which told her she was right; the certainty that she had always been. "I don't want to change anything from that part of our lives anymore- I just want everything that's good now. For me, that doesn't include you. For Lindsey, it does."

            He stood up, her face turning upward for one final look into the deep-sea eyes, before he waved to Lindsey and strode away into the parking lot. Catherine stared at the receding figure until the distance swallowed him over a hill, and removed her sunglasses to wipe sluggishly at the fatigue in her eyes. 

            Maybe Eddie _had_ changed.

            He'd let her go.

~End 


End file.
